New Techno-Meters Mean Parking Rates Can Go Up In Real Time

In his announcement last week that the city of Los Angeles is getting 10,000 new high-tech parking meters, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa seems to have overlooked one important point:

According to KABC 790 TalkRadio's MIchael Linder, those meters can raise their prices in real-time according to supply and demand. He calls it "on-demand pricing," which could mean that a busy day shopping on Melrose could cost you an extra buck or two. Also, longer-term parkers could pay more for second and third hours ($3?), according to Linder.

"It'll be adjusted to what's going on in that block," Los Angeles Department of Transportation's Peer Ghent tells Linder. "When the blocks are full, the price will go up. When blocks are empty, the price will go down."

It sounds like another way City Hall is taxing residents indirectly as it looks for easy solutions to a $492 million deficit due July 1. Electricity rates in the city are going up by nearly five percent July 1, the direct result of an effort by the City Council to get $73.5 million out the Department of Water and Power. And the council is considering making sidewalk repair, worth $1.2 billion, the responsibility of property owners.

Dennis Romero has worked on staff at several magazines and newspapers, including the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Los Angeles Times, where he participated in Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the L.A. riots. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone online, the Guardian, and, as a
young stringer, the New York Times.